Though 90 such employees appeared before the court, the number of such workers, including drivers and helpers, in PRTC is estimated to be 2,000. The Punjab and Haryana high court has turned down the plea of outsourced employees of PEPSU Roadways Transport Corporation (PRTC) seeking regularisation of their services.
Allowing the petition by PRTC, the high court bench of justice HS Sethi and justice Minderjeet Yadav quashed the single-judge order of April 2026 that directed the corporation to regularise the services of outsourced drivers and conductors.
The court opined that the master and servant relationship needed to be proved on the basis of written documents, including the appointment order. Such a proposition cannot be accepted,” the court asserted. It further noted that if the single-judge order was implemented, it would put the PRTC in financial difficulty, without there being any consideration as to whether such financial liability can be borne by the corporation. The court also found that the salaries and provident fund of such workers were being managed by the contractor and not by the PRTC. As such, holding the PRTC as an employer of such workers, so as to regularise their services, would be by ignoring certain obvious facts, which cannot be done, it added.
“Merely because, after being appointed by a private agency, they are discharging their duties with the PRTC, they cannot be said to have gained the status of employees of the PRTC so as to claim regularisation of services.
